Ice Horror (1)
The world spread beneath the frozen crust was a labyrinth.
The underground chamber I had chosen for my nest was pierced through in both directions, but this place put it to shame. It was as if some colossal mining drill had roamed to and fro, boring passages everywhere it went.
The Mother of the Sky and I walked through this subterranean maze of ice.
Thanks to my auxiliary organs, I could keep my bearings even in total darkness. That much went without saying—but the Mother of the Sky moved through this lightless place without the slightest hesitation as well.
｢Which way's faster?｣
[Zzzz zzz zzzzz (Right side's better)]
｢Yeah?｣
Walking beside me, her amber eyes glowed with the soft, steady warmth of embers.
Among the mythical beasts a Volf could transform into, there were species that stored light within their bodies and released it as the situation demanded. Thanks to that ability, the griffin could put her exceptional vision to full use regardless of day or night.
Like adventurers braving the unknown with nothing but a single torch to light the way, we pressed onward toward the nest.
Something's off here.
More than ten minutes had passed since we entered, and we hadn't encountered a single living creature—strange, considering even a place like this should host its share of life.
Worse, though I hadn't noticed when we first came in, the deeper we went, the more certain I became: this hollow space wasn't something nature had made.
The Mother of the Sky had reached the same conclusion.
｢Looks like we've wandered somewhere we shouldn't have.｣
She pointed a forepaw at a section of the wall.
Long grooves, each roughly three meters in length, ran in a sparse, broken line. They'd been carved quite a while ago; every single one was packed full with ice and packed earth.
But I knew what those marks meant.
And what kind of place this was.
This was a space created by a being more massive than anything I had ever faced.
A monstrous beast of tremendous power—still a step below the Black Galagon, but formidable all the same.
[Zzzzzzz zzzzzzz (This is the Ice Horror's territory)]
｢Judging by the size of it… at least an Adult. Maybe bigger.｣
Ice Horrors molted as they aged, and with every shed carapace their bodies grew larger and their armor hardened further. In the game, balance reasons had capped their growth at adulthood to keep their size in check.
But this was reality. If one had kept growing past adulthood, I didn't even want to imagine how enormous it might be.
Those marks—looks like they were gouged out by its leg claws.
If its claws alone were that size, the creature's body had to be at least 150 meters long. Truly, calling it off the charts would be no exaggeration.
｢Sense anything nearby?｣
[Zzzzz (Not yet)]
It went without saying—I'd already swept the area with my auxiliary organs before coming down here. All I'd felt was the chill of the air; no unusual movement had registered.
I pressed an auxiliary organ against the wall. Same as before. Nothing.
But if this truly was an Ice Horror's territory, letting my guard down was out of the question.
The beast, hampered by its enormous bulk, didn't range far to hunt. It claimed a fixed stretch of ground as its hunting preserve and preyed on whatever wandered inside.
We've been down here for what, half an hour? It's known we're here already.
It could detect scent and vibration from dozens of kilometers away. Without a nest to anchor me, I could only sense enemies within a few kilometers—by comparison, the thing was in a league of its own.
By now it would be hurrying our way to claim us.
And though the Ice Horror's body was immense, it could muffle the sound of its own movement. The fine, downy hairs along its legs and torso absorbed and dampened the noise its steps would otherwise make.
Because of that, by the time you actually heard it coming, it was more likely than not already too late.
Even if I spotted it chasing us early enough to run, this was its home ground. Fleeing would buy us nothing but time.
Better to prepare for how we were going to fight it.
Let's break it down, one thing at a time.
First, the enemy's advantages. Chief among them: I knew next to nothing about this one.
I knew Ice Horrors well enough—but I couldn't be certain how much stronger this particular specimen might be.
In the game it never exceeded 100 meters at the very most, but this one was 150 meters if it was an inch. My current body was 28 meters; activating the Paragon of the Hunt would make me bigger, but against this thing I'd still be hopelessly small.
Unlike the Sea Demon or the Black Galagon, which toyed with their prey through uncanny special abilities, the Ice Horror possessed no particular supernatural gift. It was a creature that simply overwhelmed its enemies with superior physical might.
Its strength and its defenses would both exceed mine—of that I had no doubt.
On top of that, its detection ability outstripped my own. The Ice Horror's head-borne antennae could pick up vibrations, sound, scent—the whole spectrum.
No matter where I hid, it would find me fast, so my usual opening gambit—a fight begun with ambush—was off the table.
An enemy with superior detection. And a complete unknown as to just how strong it was. Those were its two advantages.
And my advantages are the mirror image.
The Ice Horror knew nothing about me, either. As far as it was concerned, we were probably just a pair of Winter Walkers that had tumbled down into the depths by chance.
It has no idea what I can do.
If it was a creature that broke the rules, then so was I.
Even if my raw combat power fell short of the beast's, I carried traits that could make up the difference.
What's more, while I knew nothing about this creature, I knew everything about Ice Horrors. Their habits, their strengths, their weaknesses—every piece of information sat ready in my head.
A diverse arsenal of traits, and hard experience hunting countless Ice Horrors before. Those were my weapons.
Having settled my thoughts, I called the Mother of the Sky to a halt.
[Zzzz zzzzz (We fight here)]
｢You think the two of us alone will be enough?｣
I shook my head at her question.
By my estimate, if that thing's over 150 meters, cracking its carapace will be a battle in itself.
Even its thinnest armor would be several meters thick. Unless I was wearing the reinforced body of the Paragon of the Hunt, or swinging something with the destructive punch of God's Whip, I wouldn't scratch it.
So here, I needed help—not just mine, but everyone's. No. 26 and Adhai, the Mother of the Sky, all of them.
[Zzzz zzzzz zzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzzzz (I'll buy us time. Meanwhile, go back to the nest and bring the others)]
｢You're planning to lure it out yourself?｣
[Zz (Yeah)]
｢Hm. Don't get me wrong, it goes for big prey first, but it's not locked into that. I could be the one it hits first.｣
A fair point.
Ice Horrors generally favored larger prey, but they weren't without exceptions. Cunning things that they were, they sometimes behaved unpredictably.
There were cases where one would neutralize a weak-looking opponent first before turning on the big prize. If this one acted that way down here, the Mother of the Sky would be in serious danger.
[Zzzz zzzzzz (No need to worry)]
Let it call itself clever. When it came to scheming, I wasn't about to lose to anything.
Your time to shine, little ones.
With a wet, sticky tearing sound, the circular membrane nestled where my thick dorsal carapace met my waist split open. The little fiends that had been nested inside came pouring out.
My infection-type fusion trait—the Tooth Fairy Nest—had activated.
The murderous fleas lined up before me, still tiny next to the 28 meters I'd grown into. The Mother of the Sky, catching on to what I intended, gave a slow nod.
｢…Yeah. I get it now.｣
[Zzz zzzzz zzzzz zzzzzz zzzzz (Good. When you hit a fork in the tunnels, bear right)]
｢I'll figure it out, don't worry about explaining.｣
The griffin snorted and met my eyes.
She said nothing, but what she was thinking wasn't hard to guess.
At my slight nod, she broke into a run and vanished ahead into the dark.
With her gone, I turned my attention to the Tooth Fairies.
You all have work to do for me.
The moment my intent-laden thought-waves washed over them, the fleas scattered, each seeking out the task assigned to it. Watching them disperse, I moved as well.
There was a battlefield nearby—ideal for fighting this thing.
The thing that had been crawling through the ice caverns on its countless legs came to a dead stop.
The vibrations drifting in from far away had shifted.
The large vibration and the small vibrations that had been moving together suddenly split apart and set off in different directions.
The thing knew what this meant. Among herd-dwelling prey, adults sometimes served as decoys to protect weak young. This would be much the same.
In that case, the answer was simple.
Target the small vibrations. The young were slow and weak—devour them first, and go after the strong adults afterward. Far more efficient that way.
The thing was about to follow the smaller vibrations as it always did when its antennae detected something new.
A shower of minute vibrations was pouring out from the large one.
It had never encountered anything like this, and the thing faltered, if only slightly. Had the small vibrations served as the decoy this time? Or had it misread something?
It pressed its two long antennae against the ground. From within the cold touch of soil and ice, faint tremors and sounds climbed up along their length.
The beast judged them to be the footsteps of small creatures. Which meant the young were gathered around the large vibration.
So that was why the big vibration had changed a short while ago—the creature was likely carrying its young. Rare, but such creatures were not unheard of, and the thing accepted the explanation.
｢Sssssssssss.｣
Having withdrawn its antennae, the thing set off once more.
Its destination: the place where so many vibrations gathered.
It worked its hundreds of legs busily, gliding through the maze of ice like something poured from a jug. For all its staggering size, it moved with remarkable silence. Any other creature hearing it would have assumed a hole had opened somewhere in these underground depths and a draft was blowing through.
As it traveled, prey registered on its senses. Ten young ones lay ahead.
Probably stragglers from the fleeing pack, left behind in the rush.
Even as juveniles, they were apparently rather belligerent, for the fallen ones lunged straight at the thing that appeared in their tunnel.
The thing spread wide the four jaws covering its mouth and drove its head straight down into the prey. The four jaws plowed up the frozen floor entire, like a mining excavator. The young were swallowed up amid soil, stone, and ice, and went straight down into its guts.
It was a method made possible only by the sheer, almost absurd gulf in size between the two sides—a gap too great to even bother comparing.
Ten juveniles dispatched in a single stroke, the beast pressed on.
Its antennae spoke to it. Past the tunnel ahead lay a cavern. The large vibration and the young were gathered there.
Anticipation of the feast to come sent venom dribbling from its jaws. Desperate to cram fresh meat into its gut a moment sooner, the thing tore down the ice tunnel at full speed.
In an instant it passed through the tunnel and thrust its head into the wide cavern. The large vibration was close enough now for its antennae to sketch the outline.
"Gotcha."
A small sound, riding in on the air.
The beast had no idea what that sound meant.
But it knew exactly what would come of the immense energies it could feel radiating from the being that had made it.
The thing scrambled to retreat back down the tunnel, but its bulk refused to cooperate. As its body wedged in the passage and its movements stalled, the very thing it dreaded became reality.
A staggering torrent of energy hurtled from the depths of the cavern and set its carapace ablaze. Not just the armor—the flesh beneath scorched through entire, and the thing screamed.
｢Sssssss!｣
The pain was much like what it had felt when it was very young, when the sky-flying serpents had attacked it.
The difference was that this blast carried destructive power beyond any comparison to those long-ago strikes.
The energy, unsatisfied with merely burning the beast, brought the ceiling and walls above its head crashing down as well. The moment the fire of that energy died, rock and ice avalanched down and buried it whole.
Just as planned.
My cavern had several ice tunnels branching from it, and I had deliberately left ten Tooth Fairies behind in that particular one.
I was confident that an Ice Horror—which preyed on the young and the weak first—would crush the fleas on its way in. And the moment I felt the fairies die, I would be ready to fire the Psychic Breath without delay.
The reason I chose the Psychic Breath over God's Whip was simple. If I'd used God's Whip, the entire Ice Plains above my head would have come caving in.
And if that happened, everyone but me would be crushed under the rubble on the spot. The Galagons wheeling around outside would catch on fast that something was hiding down here, too.
That was why I'd gone with the Psychic Breath—the strongest ranged attack I had after God's Whip.
Besides, its sheer size worked in my favor.
I'd estimated its body length at 150 meters, but from the look of its head alone it seemed even bigger. Because its body was so massive, even though it sensed my attack early, it wedged itself in the tunnel and couldn't get clear.
First strike goes to me, then.
The tunnel it had come through had collapsed completely, but an Ice Horror wasn't fragile enough to die from an attack of this scale. If anything, only the section of armor that had taken the Psychic Breath head-on might be damaged.
It would come bursting out at me before long.
And before it does—
To fight a monster, one first had to become one.
I activated the Paragon of the Hunt.